Legacy
by EGB Fan
Summary: The state of war takes an important turn just as Deadeye is called away. He is reunited with his old shipmates, the Corsair Canards, while activities on Genus seem to have Komplex worried.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own _Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars_. I'm just borrowing it.

_Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars: _**Legacy**

Part 1

They say your life flashes before your eyes. _They're wrong_, he thought. It was slow, lingering and utterly random. He had always expected the sequence to be played chronologically, which wasn't logical at all, now that he thought about it. Thought processes are never linear, least of all in a dying mind. But then, how could any living person know that? Rigel Seven was getting gradually further away, and he was in a hurry to pick up some booty. The new boy, small, older than he looked, and with feathers as black as tar, was mopping a floor that didn't need mopping.

"Wait until they dirty it, lad. That's what I always do."

The lad scowled at the girl who had spoken. She was his own age, though taller. She had been with them some weeks, and was showing promise, or so her captain thought. The boy, as yet, he knew nothing about. He approached them. The girl saluted dutifully, and the boy looked terrified.

"What's your name, lad?"

"Tom."

"Tom, you must always address me as cap'n."

"Aye-aye, cap'n. Sorry, cap'n."

"Don't apologise. Now, young'uns, there'll be no quarrelling among ye. The Corsair Canards are all friends and allies. Have I not told ye that before, Miss Lanelle?"

"We weren't quarrelling, cap'n," the girl replied. "I was merely offering this lad some advice."

"Advice," said the captain, "is of limited value from a lass still learning. Now then, lad, your skills with a mop are of little importance. Put that down and come with me. You too, Miss Lanelle. I want to see what skills you have learnt already."

Tom proved to be as promising a student as Lanelle, perhaps more so. His young eyes were sharp, his four arms strong and his hands steady and precise. But, of course, Tom wasn't there anymore. And Lanelle? Where was she?

"Tom!"

"Tom isn't here, sir. He's been gone a long time."

It was Lanelle's voice. He was back in that accursed place. Was she there too?

"I know, lass, I know." He felt her hand on his forehead, and tried feebly to brush it away. "None of that, lass. Where is this place? Arrr! Put me in a ship, launch me into space and shoot her out from under me. I don't want to die like this."

"I know, cap'n."

"Aye, but I don't want to die like that either. There be no honour in going down with me ship at the hands of allies."

"I'm sorry, cap'n." Her voice sounded distant, and full of tears. "I'm sorry it had to be this way. You were too good to be defeated."

"You were one of the best I had the pleasure o' teaching, young Lanelle," said the captain. "You too, Tom. Why, if the pair o' ye had young'uns…"

"Cap'n!" exclaimed Tom.

"It's early for that yet," added Lanelle, winking at Tom, though he seemed not to notice.

"Are ye ready for this?" their captain asked.

"Aye," the two rookie pirates said together.

"We'll be on board in a matter of minutes. Now remember, the skills you've learned are for defence only. If ye fire your weapons, ye be not shoot'n' to kill."

"We know there's honour among the Corsair Canards, cap'n," said Tom. "That was the first lesson you taught us. They're innocent people on that there cruiser."

"Whatever we take," said the captain, "they can afford to lose. Be not soft hearted, young Tom. No one is foolish enough to carry more than they can afford to lose."

Tom nodded. "Nay, cap'n. Only their lives."

The captain smiled in spite of himself. "You're too good, Tom. Too good."

"What, cap'n?" asked Lanelle.

"Tom," the captain smiled blithely. "He was too good… to good… That's why it happened."

"Aye," Lanelle said, her voice shaking. It was barely a whisper. "I know."

"'Tis no good crying for me, lass. Dry your eyes now. Ah, 'twas a fine raid, your first. You remember? You did me proud, lass."

"I remember."

"Tom was just too good…"

x x x

"That's got to be another fifty double bubbles tagging on at the back!" exclaimed Bucky O'Hare, a pink-eyed green rabbit and captain of the frigate _Righteous Indignation_, which just happened to be under attack. "Jenny, we need more speed!"

"I'm not sure the engines can take it, Bucky!" Even as she said it, however, First Mate Jenny – a cat from the cult known as Alderbaran – increased the power of the struggling engines.

"This is insane!" said Bucky. "Why so many? They've been hot on our tail since we left Orwell!"

"They must have realised we're on our way to Genus," said Jenny. "I expect they want to stop our plans before we have a chance to carry them out."

"Hmm." Bucky looked thoughtful. "That looks like practically the Air Marshal's entire fleet after us – and that's a _lot_ of trouble to go to just on a hunch. There's no reason to assume the toads haven't intercepted our communications. I'd be prepared to bet that they know exactly _why_ we're going to Ge- "

He was cut off as the _Righteous Indignation_ took what felt like a severe hit.

"Perhaps they do," said Jenny. "And look at all this effort to stop us – Komplex must be worried. Doesn't that mean there's something to find?"

"From his point of view, he can't be too careful," said Bucky, just as the little android Blinky clambered urgently into the cockpit.

"Captain O'Hare! AFC Blinky reporting!" Blinky stated the obvious. "Dire emergency, captain! Toad double bubbles in hot pursuit! Engines overheating!"

"I'll call Willy," Jenny said at once.

Somewhat inconveniently, the _Righteous Indignation_'s engineer Willy DuWitt resided in San Francisco, Earth – in a completely separate time and space from the Aniverse. He was an adolescent boy genius who had succeeded in building a fully functional photon accelerator in his room; it worked so well, in fact, that it had created a trans-dimensional portal leading straight to the _Righteous Indignation_. It had also been catalytic in sending Bruce, berserker baboon and the ship's engineer, into another world, but fortunately Willy had the necessary knowledge and skills to step into his position.

Jenny was able to contact Willy using the Alderbaran Memory Stone she had created for him. It worked on a kind of magic that very few people understood, least of all Willy – but the fact remained that it did work, and that was good enough for him. While Jenny closed her eyes, tipped back her head and attempted to make contact with Willy, Bucky tried to get a message through to Genus, to let his bosses know that the ship was under attack and therefore likely to arrive a little late… if at all.

"This is Captain Bucky O'Hare of the _Righteous Indignation_!" he announced. "Do you read me? Don't say communications are down… Jenny, did you get through?"

His question was answered when a flash of light and a static sound from the deck below announced the manifestation of Willy's door. Bucky jumped to his feet and descended two rungs of the ladder that led down to engineering, where Blinky and Bruce's brother Bruiser were greeting the new arrival.

"Willy!" Bucky exclaimed. "Thank you for getting here so quickly. We're on our way to Genus and every toad in this sector is trying to stop us. Can you get those engines working well enough to get us there?"

"I'll try," said Willy, getting to his knees; the panel that allowed him access to the ship's engine was placed uncomfortably low.

"We think the toads have intercepted communications – not that it matters now that those are down too. I want you to work on that when we get to Genus, and Jenny and I are with the Creators."

"Yes, captain."

"Good luck."

"Wow, this engine took a really good hit," said Willy, as he set to work. "Blinky, how long until we reach Genus?"

"At our current rate of progress," said Blinky, "ETA approximately seven minutes."

"Seven minutes." Willy breathed out. "We should be all right flying for seven minutes."

"There are many toad double bubbles in close pursuit," Blinky pointed out.

Willy nodded grimly. "So Bucky said. Let's just hope they miss. Why are we going to Genus to see the Creators? Have they made some kind of breakthrough?"

"Ah-ha," said Bruiser. "We don't know what it is, though. They wouldn't tell us nothin' over the radio."

"Wise," said Willy, "if you think communications have been intercepted."

"Them toads know something all right," a new voice cut in, and Willy looked up to see Deadeye Duck, the one-eyed and four-armed ship's gunner, ex-space pirate and the closest friend Willy had made in the Aniverse. "Welcome aboard, matey."

"Hi, Deadeye."

"Arrr, whose idea was it to build a ship without guns on the bow? If there's something in pursuit, you're helpless! On the _Iron Vulture_ we could shoot at enemies from front, back, side – anywhere!"

Willy, still working away, cocked an eyebrow. "Your old pirate ship?"

"Yeah," Deadeye smiled wistfully. "I been thinking about her a lot lately."

"Friend Deadeye has been missing his old shipmates?" enquired Blinky.

"Maybe," said Willy, "if the Creators really have done it, you could go back to them. I mean, as soon as we have a way to shut Komplex down for good, we'll use it. Then the toad empire will dissolve – we hope – and after that, what's to keep you here?"

"Friends," said Deadeye. "After the war's over, we always planned to find Bruce and bring him back. I have thought about it though, laddie."

"Komplex is still strong," Blinky pointed out. "Humble android suggest finding way to destroy Komplex before making plans. At least," he added, his voice rising a tone in pitch as the ship took another hit, "let us see if we reach Genus intact."

Though their attackers were persistent, the _Righteous Indignation_ didin fact reach Genus with all its crewmembers unharmed. Bucky and Jenny went to meet with the Creators, extremely curious as to what they were about to learn, while Willy stayed with the _Righteous Indignation_ to work on the engine. Deadeye, Bruiser and Blinky kept him company while he worked, ardently discussing what might happen if the Creators really had figured out at last how to take Komplex apart.

"If we can pull him apart," said Bruiser, fists balled in anticipation, "and finish off all them toads and end the war, we can go find my brother!"

"Aye, matey – he's waited long enough," agreed Deadeye.

Willy's mind, however, was very much in the present. "Don't get ahead of yourselves," he cautioned. "We've all seen how eager the toads are to stop us from… from winning, I guess." He had no idea how specifically they were going to do that, even if the Creators had found a way. "This engine took a pretty good hit. I'm almost done, but I have a feeling it's gonna be back in that state pretty soon after we leave."

"This planet is well guarded," Blinky pointed out. "Ship _Righteous Indignation_ probably will not leave protection of Genus until urgent mission is required."

Willy nodded. "True. And we don't want to get too far away from HQ, I suppose, if we're worried the toads have intercepted communications. Speaking of which, Bucky said he wanted me to look at the communications console. I'm about done here – let's get up to the cockpit."

He rose to his feet and ascended towards the cockpit, closely followed by his three companions.

"Willy?" ventured Bruiser, as Willy pulled a panel off the communications console and began squinting at the tangle of wires inside. "If the war ends, does that mean we won't need the _Righteous Indignation_ no more?"

"You're getting ahead of yourself, Bruiser."

"Friend Bruiser makes good point," Blinky remarked. "The United Animals' Coalition may take back frigates _Righteous Indignation_ and _Indefatigable_ if war ends, and crew will be dispersed to other positions."

"Blinky," said Willy. "Let's cross that bridge when we come to it."

"It could be on the horizon, laddie," Deadeye said sagely. "Don't ye never think about the future?"

"Not right now, Deadeye. If the toads _have_ intercepted communications, we should probably start coding our frequencies or something. I don't know… I thought they were pretty secure… maybe the toads have found out what we're up to some other way."

"What we're up to?" Deadeye cocked an eyebrow. "I sure wish they'd tell _us_."

"This won't be difficult to fix," said Willy. "In fact…"

It was a simple case of fusing a few wires together, and then reattaching the panel. Willy switched on the console, wondering whom he could contact in order to test it, but his problem was solved when a female voice at once buzzed urgently through the speakers: "_Righteous Indignation_, this is the _Iron Vulture_. Do you read me? _Please_ respond…"

Deadeye stepped forward. "Lanelle?" he asked incredulously.

"Deadeye, there you are," Lanelle's voice came back to him, relieved. "I've been trying to reach you for the past hour."

"The ship took some damage, lassie. What's wrong? Are you all right?"

"I'm sorry, Deadeye," Lanelle said sadly. "I've got some bad news. Old Man Flipper died this afternoon."

x x x

The Creators, Doctors Hopkins, Croakley and Wartimer, were kept in a secure facility surrounded by heavily armed guards. They didn't like to think of themselves as being "kept"; but as a nervous little bush baby called Retina led Bucky and Jenny through electrified fences and coded doors, they both thought that this situation looked little or no different from the prison ship in which the Creators had spent the last hundred years of their lives (some of that time they had spent cryogenically frozen).

Admittedly the facilities were a little more comfortable here than on the prison ship. Bucky had once been on board an exact replica of that ship, created by the Toad Air Marshal with the help of a matter transmutor; certainly there had been no hi-tech laboratory like the one on Genus. In this lab the Creators spent most of their days, trying to discover a way of destroying their creation, Komplex.

"Captain O'Hare, First Mate Jenny – welcome!" Dr. Hopkins smiled warmly, shaking hands with each of them in turn while Retina hovered near the doorway.

"Um, hello," Dr. Croakley added nervously. "It was, um, very good of you to come."

"We're lucky we made it," said Bucky. "We were chased by toad double bubbles all the way from Orwell. We think they must know something about why we're here."

"Likely," Dr. Wartimer cut in. He coughed violently, and then went on, "We've hacked into Komplex."

Jenny looked astonished. "You've hacked into Komplex?" she echoed.

"That's what I said, didn't I?" Wartimer returned irritably. "Before we can figure out how to take him apart, we need a copy of our original blueprints. Well, we got 'em. Komplex was never gonna let anybody see them, except maybe Toadborg, but he'd have to be pretty stupid to destroy them in case he ever malfunctioned. So we figured he'd keep them somewhere in his system."

"And we were right," Hopkins concluded. "But we would never have been able to hack into Komplex without him knowing about it. There have been several attempts on this place since we hacked in, but fortunately the security system seems to be as reliable as we're told."

Bucky frowned. "You knew we'd be followed here."

"I'm sorry about that," said Hopkins. "They must have been watching out for your ship – we didn't know they'd do that."

"We should have thought of it," Croakley added sheepishly. "Sorry, captain."

"Are you all right, Dr. Wartimer?" asked Jenny, as the elderly toad emitted another stream of throaty coughs.

"I'm old," said Wartimer. "This is what happens when you get old, sweetheart. Now look, we have several copies of the blueprints. There's one in every safe hiding place on Genus."

"We've also requested that Commander Dogstar bring the _Indefatigable_ here so that he can keep a copy on board," Hopkins took up the commentary. "And the fox's vessel… the, um, _Screaming Mimi_."

"How she became a captain so quickly with no proper training I'll never understand," muttered Jenny.

Hopkins either didn't hear her, or he ignored her. He went on in his cool, unruffled manner, "But no hiding place is _that_ safe. Komplex will destroy as many of the copies as he can get his hands – er – his minions' hands on. Genus is secure, but nowhere is _that _secure. Except for one place. Well, perhaps several, but only one we have access to. Or, more accurately, _you_ have access to."

Bucky raised his eyebrows. "You mean Willy's dimension."

"The toads don't have access to it, do they?" asked Croakley.

"No," Bucky said thoughtfully. "I suppose they've figured out that Willy _is_ from another dimension… unless they think he's some kind of mutated baboon. But I don't know about asking him to hide the blueprints in his world. I don't want to put an entire foreign dimension in danger."

"The toads wouldn't have to know," persisted Hopkins. "Why, you could walk out of here now with two copies. Let Willy hide one in his dimension, and let the toads steal the other from the _Righteous Indignation_. Then they would believe your copy was safely in their hands – it probably wouldn't occur to them that you had another."

Jenny looked doubtful. "Are all of the toads that naïve?"

Bucky shook his head. "Not Komplex. Nor Toadborg, come to that."

"They don't have access to Willy's dimension," said Hopkins, "and they have no knowledge of how to gain it."

"We gained access by accident," Bucky pointed out.

"Right," Wartimer said dryly. "What are the chances of that happening again? Look, captain, your Willy is extremely smart – as smart as us, even. He could take the blueprints home, study them at his leisure and figure out how to take Komplex apart without the lousy scumbag even knowing about it."

"You're right," sighed Bucky. "We have to do this. But remember that Willy is just a child, no matter what his intellect. If Komplex should gain access to his dimension, I'm going to order Willy to hand over the blueprints right away. I see no reason why Komplex should have any designs on that dimension if he has what he wants from it – and goodness knows we don't want Willy's world turning into one giant war zone run by computers."

"I quite agree," said Hopkins. "Of course Willy must surrender the blueprints if his world is in danger, but for the good of the Aniverse, I think we must risk it."

x x x

Over the years Genus had become very much industrialised, but the _Righteous Indignation_ had landed close to a pleasant garden area in which the staff of the United Animals' Coalition enjoyed their lunch breaks. The garden had been copiously planned and planted: there were benches, neat flowerbeds and an impressive fountain making a nice centrepiece to the whole area.

It was on the edge of this fountain that Deadeye sat, gazing at his own reflection with his one good eye, thinking of how things might have been if he had stayed with the Corsair Canards. He would have been pardoned by now, along with the rest of them, and he could go home if he wanted to – to Kenopus Three. It wasn't really natural, he supposed, for a duck to spend so much of his life away from the water. But of course, he couldn't make any plans while there was still a war to fight.

Willy's reflection appeared behind his. Deadeye smiled slightly at the inevitable cliché.

"Hey there, Will."

"Do you want me to go?"

Deadeye shook his head.

Willy sat down on the edge of the fountain beside him. "Who was he?"

"My cap'n on the _Iron Vulture_."

"Ah."

"He taught me everything I know."

Willy raised his eyebrows, causing his glasses to slide down the bridge of his nose. "Everything?" he asked.

"Well," said Deadeye. "Perhaps not everything."

"I'm sorry, Deadeye."

"Well, lad, no sense being sorry he's dead. Comes to us all, don't it – and he had more'n his time. He must'a' been… I don't know… old. It wasn't the death he wanted, laddie. Like all good cap'ns, he wanted to go down with his ship. But he was too good to be defeated, and he grew old." He paused. "He never wanted to grow old. They retired him a little while after… after I left. Or so I heard. Ha." He smiled slightly. "I sure didn't expect Lanelle to be cap'n of the _Vulture_. Should'a' done, though. He always said it'd be me, but after I left…"

"You could have been captain?"

"Maybe."

"So why'd you leave?"

"Why do you think, laddie? The Aniverse was in chaos. Still is. I couldn't joyride all over space stealing off innocent animals with that going on under me beak. It was a hard decision. There was always a danger I'd… I wonder if he ever forgave me."

"Who? Your captain?"

Deadeye nodded.

"I'm sure he understood why you did it."

"Well." Deadeye looked up for the first time since Willy had joined him. "You remember Redjack? 'It's unnatural for pirates to be honest!' Cap'n Flipper was of that mode of thinking. He must know I was responsible for the treaty."

"Didn't he care?" Willy asked gently. "About other animals, and about the safety of the Aniverse?"

"Oh, aye, laddie." Deadeye looked down at his reflection once again. "He cared."

x x x

The more Tom heard about the Toad Wars, the more he wished he could help. Their leader, this Komplex, was growing ever more powerful and entire worlds were being enslaved virtually every day. Or so Tom had heard. Life on board the _Iron Vulture_ was claustrophobic. The Corsair Canards saw a great deal of the Aniverse, but only in fleeting glimpses, and from a distance.

Lanelle found Tom below decks, gazing through a porthole.

"We're gaining on the gazelles' liner," she said. "Cap'n Flipper wants us all up on deck now."

Tom turned to face her. "All right, I'm on me way."

"Good. There'll be plenty of time for star gazing later, when we've shared out the booty."

"I was looking at the planets," said Tom. "Wondering…"

"Wondering what?"

"How many the toads have taken over. It's an ugly thought, ain't it? Not being free."

Lanelle looked past him, to the porthole through which he had been gazing. The Aniverse stretched out before them, just waiting to be explored.

"We ain't so free," she said. "There be a price on all our heads."

Tom nodded slowly. "If we stop to rest, we're dead."

"That's a kind of imprisonment."

"A better kind."

"Don't fret for them poor beasts, Tom. Ain't nothing you can do for 'em. Let's go."

Tom went with her, still thinking of the enslaved planets. He wondered whether the toads had any designs on Kenopus Three, his home world… his home world in theory. But how could it be his home planet when he had never even been there? He had hatched on Rigel Seven, and spent his infanthood there until he was old enough to be taken on board the _Iron Vulture_. He could never visit his home planet, or defend it from the toads, should the need arise. As soon as he strayed from the _Vulture_, he would be caught, and he knew that the authorities would not be lenient, regardless of his intentions. He had heard stories of pirates who were caught and punished – stories that had terrified him as a duckling.

Gazelles are nervous creatures, and they all jumped a foot in the air when the Corsair Canards burst in on their four-course dinner. This was a pleasure cruise, devised to make a profit from vacationing families. Captain Flipper, Tom knew, would have no qualms about robbing wealthy gazelles. Their home planet was rich in precious metal – whatever these gazelles had on their ship they could definitelyafford to lose.

"Quiet down, all of ye!" bellowed Captain Flipper. "If ye hand over all your valuables then nobody gets hurt. Fear not, young'uns – we'll soon be on our way."

He spoke in kindly tones to the young fauns cowering behind their mothers, but Tom suspected it would do little to reassure the poor little things. They didn't know that they were safe from harm, or that it would soon be over.

Tom kept away from the young ones. He approached a middle-aged female gazelle swathed in jewellery, and said calmly, "Them rings will do for a start."

"Oh, you beast!" she wailed, slipping the rings off her fingers. Tom held out two hands to receive them, and bundled them into his swag bag. He wondered what anyone could possibly want with so many rings. She still hadn't removed them all. There was one left, and she was tugging desperately at it, crying with frustration.

"I think it's stuck," remarked Tom.

The gazelle nodded. "I haven't taken it off in twenty years. I suppose I've grown."

"Is it special?"

"It's my wedding ring."

"Well keep it, lassie – what do you think I am? Anyways it's not coming off today."

She looked astonished.

"What?" asked Tom.

"I've heard tales of pirates who would hack off fingers to take the rings from them."

"_What_? We would never…!"

Tom was mortified. Everyone knew the Corsair Canards were robbers, but surely it was common knowledge that they never hurt anybody except in self-defence. He was distracted, however, when he heard the voice of a new recruit close behind him.

"Now then, sweetheart, just give me your pendant and we'll leave ye alone."

Tom turned and saw Redjack, a blue-feathered duck with a short temper, looming over a frightened little gazelle girl. She was small, skinny and wide-eyed, holding desperately onto the pendant that hung from her neck.

"Redjack," Tom said quietly, pulling him away. "She's only a young'un."

"Her daddy will buy her a new one twice as good when she gets home."

"She's terrified!"

"Well of course she is. It's our job to scare people, Tom."

The squabble was interrupted when something hit the ship and it began to rock violently, spilling the gazelles' nice dinner and expensive cutlery onto the floor. With lightning reflexes Tom drew two pistols, in the same moment catching sight of the attacking vessel through the nearest porthole.

"It's a toad war ship!" he exclaimed. "What are those slimy wart bags doing _here_?"

He realised, of course, that the toads must have some kind of design on these gazelles. They were renowned for enslaving every race of animals they could get their hands on. True, they generally preferred to conquer entire planets at a time, but a poorly defended cruise ship filled with rich gazelles should have been no trouble at all for them. Evidently they had seen the ship and decided to take the opportunity, but somehow they had managed to miss the _Iron Vulture_.

A bright pink laser beam made short work of the wall opposite the one the Corsair Canards had already cut their way through. The loosened chunk of metal was kicked in, and a small battalion of heavily armed storm toads charged onto the ship.

"C-c-c-commander!" one exclaimed, almost immediately, when he caught sight of the hostile looking pirates. "It's the Corsair Canards!"

"What?" a voice snapped irritably, and a squat toad soldier pushed his way to the front of the throng. He looked annoyed at the delay, until he locked eyes with Captain Flipper. At this, the toad's face fell and his eyes widened. "What are _you_ doing here?" he demanded, his voice shrill with sheer incredulity. "These are supposed to be _my_ slaves!"

"These are no one's slaves, Commander," Flipper snarled menacingly. "Turn round and get back on your ship."

"I can't!" the toad protested. "Komplex will kill me!"

Tom took a step forward, furious to think that these toads would happily enslave entire families, children and all. "Not if we kill you first!" he shouted.

The Toad Commander scowled. "Look, duck, we've no argument with you. We're not even after the same thing here. You just go back to your ship with their riches, and let us do what we came to do."

Tom took a further two steps forward. "What do you think we are?" he demanded shrilly. "Get your slimy asses outta here! _Now_!"

"If ye want to live, that is," added Flipper, drawing up beside Deadeye, pistols in two of his four hands.

"C-c-c-commander," said the same nervous storm toad that had first pointed out the ducks' presence. "These are the Corsair Canards. P-p-p-perhaps we'd better - "

"Nonsense," snapped the Toad Commander. He turned to his army. "Don't just stand there, you cretins! Deal with these feathered fools!"

Tom's first instinct was to step in front of the nearby faun whose pendant Redjack had been attempting to steal. Having done so, he caught sight of a storm toad approaching from his left. Before the toad even realised that he had been spotted, Tom had shot the gun from his hand. The toad was momentarily stunned, and stood staring at his emptied hand, amazed and relieved that he had escaped injury. Tom, meanwhile, had disarmed a storm toad approaching from the right. All around him, ducks and toads were engaged in battle, the former trying to avoid injury to the cowering fauns and the latter not caring.

"I never miss," Tom said menacingly. "Keep away from this here young'un or it'll be your heads."

The toads had more troops on board their ship, just some of which the Toad Commander summoned when too many of his toads were disarmed, wounded or killed. Tom was surrounded, as were all of the other Corsair Canards.

"You're outnumbered!" he heard the Toad Commander's voice proclaim, somewhere in the room. "Give up and leave while you still can!"

Tom knew they wouldn't do that. Still clutching his pistols, his fingers tightened on the triggers. Then he heard something that made him look round anxiously: the voice of Redjack, shouting out, "Lanelle!"

Panic coursed through Tom. What had happened to her? Was she wounded, dead or just in trouble? The distraction was costly. The pistols were kicked from Tom's hands, and he found himself pinned to the floor by two storm toads. Another two came to help them, and between them they held down all four of Tom's arms.

"You never miss, huh?" one said menacingly. "Let's see how tough you are after we're through with you!"

What happened next, Tom could never remember with much clarity. He just remembered the overwhelming fear as the butt of the toad's rifle descended towards his left eye, as though in slow motion. At least, that was how he remembered it. In reality, it had all happened too quickly. Tom's eyes snapped instinctively shut as the great weight bore down upon him. The pain made him cry out; it was intense, but over in seconds. He braced himself for the assault on his right eye, but it never came. Someone pulled the toads away from him. He lay still for barely a second, and then tried to get up. The vision in his remaining eye was blurred, and his head swam.

"You have to get up, lad," Flipper's voice said urgently. "You'll be crushed underfoot."

"Tom!" It was Lanelle's voice. He heard her rushing towards him, and was overcome with relief that she was all right. "Oh, Tom…"

Her mortified expression began to clear in front of his good eye. Tom got to his feet, swayed uncertainly and grabbed onto Lanelle with all four hands. She held his arms, and he felt someone else's steadying hands on his shoulders. He knew they must belong to Captain Flipper.

"Take him back to the ship, Lanelle," ordered Flipper.

"Nay, cap'n." Tom shook his head, which sent a burning pain shooting through his skull. "It's all right. I'm all right. I can go on."

However it was a long time before he felt able to let go of Lanelle's arms. He heard the sounds of battle surrounding him, but was helpless to defend himself.

"That needs cleaning up!" a female voice said authoritatively. Tom recognised it as belonging to the gazelle whose wedding ring he hadn't stolen. "Come with me, son."

He was dragged across the room and, in spite of his protests, the gazelle began administering first aid to his mutilated eye. All she could do was clean and dress the wound. That eye would never be of any use to him again, he knew.

"I see half as well," he said quietly. "I see you right in front of me and I probably couldn't hit you."

"Hit me?" the gazelle said briskly. "What do you mean, hit me? Why would you want to hit me? Does that hurt?" she added, as she mopped the blood from his face.

"Aye, lassie. That hurts."

The room was awash with bright lasers flying in all directions. Soon they overwhelmed everything in Tom's limited sight, and became flashes of colour swimming in front of his remaining good eye. He screwed it shut, and turned his head from the violent scene.

x x x

A spy sprinted into a bathroom and locked the door behind him. He looked furtively around, just to make absolutely sure he was alone, and then whipped out a handheld communications console.

"Come in, Negator, this is Retina," said the little bush baby.

"Ah, Retina – how's my favourite little traitor?" the smooth tones of Al Negator purred through the speakers.

"I've got information for you, Al. Those toads better pay up."

"Don't worry, Retina – they always do. Tell me what you know and I'll get us our simoleans."

"All right. Komplex is right: they do have his blueprints. They've made several copies, and hidden them in all the secure places they have."

"All of which the toads could have guessed," said Al. "So predictable."

"I know," said Retina. "There's more. There's one hiding place they don't think the toads will even think of, never mind access. You know about that thing Willy – the weird mammal that works for O'Hare?"

"Yes." Al's voice darkened. "The pink-skinned baboon who gave me all those useless willies. Well, what of him?"

"He's from another dimension. Did you know?"

"I suspected as much, and I should say the toads do too."

"They're giving this Willy a copy of the blueprints to hide in his own dimension."

"Hmm." Al was silent for a few moments. "That's very good, Retina. We might as well get on ahead with this assignment – I know what Toadborg will want next."

"A way to gain access to this other world?" the bush baby hazarded.

"Indeed, Retina – very clever. You find out how those mammals do their dimension jumping, and I guarantee that the toads will pay us very handsomely indeed."

_To be continued…_


	2. Chapter 2

_Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars: _**Legacy**

Part 2

Tom was aiming a dart at the board on the back of his cabin door. The sharp little missile was between his middle finger and thumb when the door swung open and Lanelle wandered in. Tom's fingers tightened on the dart, which had been a fraction of a second from leaving his hand, and he lowered his arm.

"You oughtta be more careful, lassie."

"I always thought it was daft idea to keep a dartboard on the back of a door."

"Well ye've no business wandering in here anyways," Tom said irritably. "I might'a' been naked."

Lanelle smiled. "So much the better."

Tom did not look amused. Lanelle closed the door and turned to look at the dartboard. Three darts were lodged in it, each an inch or so from the bullseye.

"You're improving," remarked Lanelle.

"Bah! I'll never get it back."

"Never say never, Tom."

Tom turned away from her and looked at his feet. Lanelle, distressed to see her friend like this, walked over to him and placed a hand gently on his top left arm.

"You'll get used to it, and you'll get your aim back," she said. "You're not the first pirate something like this has happened to. Think of Three-Arm."

"I guess that was worse luck than mine," Tom conceded.

"Cap'n Flipper told me he'd train you up again, if I sent you to him. He's been shoot'n' at flying discs with one eye shut all evening so as he can figure out how it's done."

Tom looked at her dubiously.

"Or so he says. Oh, Tom, please stop this!"

Tom raised his head and took a deep breath. "I know you're right," he said, with a new strength to his voice. "I'm just angry. I shouldn't'a' let my guard down – and someday I'll have revenge on those slimy little…" – he apparently couldn't think of a word fitting enough to describe them.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help."

Tom hadn't forgotten why he'd dropped his guard. "Were you in trouble?" he asked.

"Nothing I couldn't handle."

"Right," Tom smiled dryly. "I don't know why Flipper wonders which of us would make a better cap'n. _You _can handle anything."

"I can't."

"Well you're in one piece, lassie. I should'a' been more careful. I got a short fuse – that's my problem – and yesterday I paid the price." He jerked his head upwards, indicating the upper layers of the ship. "You know what they're calling me up there?"

Lanelle raised her eyebrows. "You don't like it?"

"I don't know," shrugged Tom.

"Well personally," Lanelle went on, "I hope it sticks. More'n half the pirates on this ship ain't known by their real names. You make a sacrifice in battle, that's what you're remembered for. Think of - "

"Three-Arm?" Tom suggested, with a slight smirk.

Lanelle laughed. "Aye. Tom, this short fuse of yours… you're right – it's a weakness. Flipper always says this about you." She took a step towards him and put two hands on his elbows. "You're too good. You care too much."

Tom cocked an eyebrow. "That's possible?"

"You're a pirate."

"Aye, lassie, I know I'm a pirate. Revenge will have to wait. If I leave this ship, and I'm discovered…"

"You hang," Lanelle finished. "Forget about revenge. It's an eye – you can do without it. Now you just have to keep the other one safe."

Tom frowned. "The toads have taken more than my eye."

"Not from you."

"I ain't the only one that matters."

Lanelle, still holding his elbows, pulled him closer. "You are to me."

x x x

"Komplex, please," said Toadborg, in a voice that had once belonged to a living toad warrior, but was now distorted by layers of machinery. "This is not good news."

The huge, digital toad face on the computer screen stopped chuckling and said, in quietly menacing tones, "I am laughing, Toadborg, at the mammals' incompetence. I still find it hard to believe that they were foolish enough to give a highly influential council position to a newt in a large walrus costume, and now Negator tells me that they let his spy overhear something as vital as _this_."

They were on the toad mother ship, Al Negator standing a few feet away from Komplex with the Toad Air Marshal and his two subordinates, Frix and Frax.

"They are foolish indeed," Al grinned widely. "I wouldn't be surprised if they just _told_ Retina how to access this pink-skinned baboon dimension. He's already working on finding a way in."

"Good," Komplex approved. "That should be very interesting."

"B-but _Komplex_!" the Air Marshal cut in shrilly. "We don't have access to it yet, and even as we speak that Willy might be sitting somewhere in his pink-skinned baboon home world with your blueprints! He might figure out a way to dismantle you!"

Komplex scowled. "No one will be dismantling _me_, Air Marshal. Now, if I had access to a parallel dimension…"

"Forgive my boldness, mighty Komplex, but aren't you getting ahead of yourself?" asked Toadborg. "As odd as it sounds, the Air Marshal's point is noteworthy."

"It sure is," Frax chimed in. "I mean, it's a whole nother dimension. It might work on a different timescale or something. A week might have passed for that Willy just while I've been talking."

"Then I suggest you stop talking," snapped Komplex. "Air Marshal, I want you to give your fleet new orders. They are to continue their attempt on Genus, O'Hare, the _Indefatigable_, the Creators, that vixen that somehow got given a frigate – all of them! But now they have a new priority: I want the hairless mammal."

"He _has_ hair," muttered Frix, to nods of agreement from Frax. "It's bright yellow, and it's all on the top of his head."

Fortunately for Frix, Komplex did not hear this. He simply narrowed his eyes and said darkly, "If we can get him here, and have him at my mercy, I don't think it will take much persuading before he shows us a way in."

x x x

"Ye've got some cheek showing your face here, you slimy little varmint!"

"Calm down, matey, it's me," said Deadeye, as he hopped out of the small one-man cruiser fashioned in the style of a toad ship.

"Oh!" Blackbeak, a Corsair Canard, holstered his guns. "You're in disguise?"

"Cap'n O'Hare insisted," Deadeye told him, as he climbed out of his space suit. It had been a long and uncomfortable voyage from Genus to Rigel Seven, but Deadeye would have put up with anything to attend Captain Flipper's wake. "It's gotten so that no mammal ship can leave dock without being swamped by toads."

"Why?" asked Blackbeak. He began leading the way towards the nearby tavern. "Has something happened? Are we close?"

Deadeye nodded. "Closer. But I couldn't tell ye how long we'll have to wait."

"Well," said Blackbeak, "I guess that doesn't matter now. Lanelle's been dying to see you, matey."

Deadeye raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

When they entered the tavern, Deadeye quickly spotted Lanelle with Redjack and a few of their comrades from the _Iron Vulture_. He approached, along with Blackbeak, and when Lanelle saw him she rose to her feet and embraced him warmly. Deadeye was faintly surprised by this. Pirates didn't make a habit of hugging one another.

"It's good to see you," she said.

"You too, lassie," replied Deadeye, aware of Redjack frowning at him. "You ok?"

"Aye. Come on – I'll buy you a drink."

She led him over to the bar and ordered two mugs of old swamp grass: ridiculously overpriced crushed swamp grass in swamp water, which reminded many ducks of home. None of Lanelle's crew joined them; Deadeye suspected that she wanted to talk about Flipper with him alone, as they shared so many memories of their old mentor.

"How does it feel to be back with your own kind?" asked Lanelle.

Deadeye shrugged. "Good. Not so promising as last time."

Lanelle nodded. "These are grievous times. What saddens me most is the way he died: old, frail, out of his mind… not what he wanted. At the end he was gibbering like a loon."

"You were there?"

"Aye. He… he didn't stop talking about you, Deadeye. I think he thought you were there with us. He kept saying your name."

Deadeye's expression hardened. "Perhaps he forgot."

"Forgot what?"

"What I did. Leaving the _Vulture_ to fight toads, and then luring you into that trap so Bucky could propose the treaty… Flipper must'a' heard about that."

"Aye," Lanelle nodded. "He heard about it. It didn't sit well with him, I'll admit. He was still sore about being retired. He didn't want to – he wanted to go on captaining that ship until he died. But he just wasn't up to it no more."

"You don't gotta explain yourself to me, lass," said Deadeye.

"I shouldn't'a' pushed him to retire. I feel bad about that now."

"Ha. Everyone who knew him could probably find something to feel bad about. He never lost faith in _you_, lass. He didn't die disappointed with _you_."

Lanelle shook her head, her eyes shining with unshed tears. "Deadeye, listen – he forgave you. He more than forgave you – he… At the end – the very end – I couldn't make head nor tail of most o' what he said. But he was talking about _you_. He looked proud. He said…"

Deadeye raised his eyebrows. "What did he say?"

"I think he meant to say that you did the right thing. He was blathering something about 'bringing them all to justice'… I think he meant the toads."

"You _think_."

"He talked about the war as well. He'd been saying that it started before he hatched, and he never dreamed it would go on until after his death. And then he started talking about you… and he looked proud… and happy. If you could'a' been there…"

"I wish I was," said Deadeye. "Thanks, Lanelle. I feel better."

"He wanted to see the toads defeated," Lanelle went on. "Please, are we _any_ closer?"

"We might be. But don't get your hopes up, lassie. We have the Creators, but they're old, and even they don't understand Komplex as well as we hoped."

Lanelle sighed deeply. "I'm so sick of this war. Flipper wanted to see its end. Well, so do I… so do you… we need to start fighting harder. Damned if _I'm_ gonna lay down and die without seeing this thing through! Deadeye, after Flipper's service, we'll use the _Iron Vulture_ for whatever you need. And this time we're gonna win once and for all!"

"Ye always were ambitious," Deadeye smiled indulgently. "But I'm glad to hear you say it." He raised his tankard. "To ending the war!"

They drank to it, and then sat in silence for some time. Deadeye was uncomfortably aware of Redjack's eyes boring into his back. This was uncannily like the last time he had been on Rigel Seven.

"Deadeye," Lanelle ventured. "What will you do after the war ends?"

"Willy asked me that a few days ago."

"Well?"

"I don't know, lassie. I'm a lot more concerned about what _you'll_ do." He gestured expansively around the room, with all four arms. "Ye won't be able to rob toads no more – and I hope you're planning on honouring the treaty."

"Huh. That will still apply, will it? We agreed to that because of the toad menace, and because you threatened us with the authorities."

"It's liberating," Deadeye said sagely; "being pardoned. You remember how we all used to live in constant fear o' being caught?"

Lanelle nodded mutely.

"For the last few years, I've had the choice to go wherever and do whatever I want – once I carried out the conditions of my pardon, that is. I stuck with Bucky to fight the war, o' course, but when that's over… I can do anything. And so can you. Going back to piracy would be pretty damn stupid, if you ask me."

Lanelle looked him in the eye. "What are you suggesting?"

"I don't know. Now who's getting ahead of himself, huh?" Deadeye raised his tankard a second time. "To Cap'n Flipper, and ending this war for him."

x x x

The _Righteous Indignation_ was sealed in a secure facility. How the toads enjoyed a challenge – once they had managed to land on Genus, over a hundred storm toads were attacking every sealed entrance they came across. Genus' defences were strong, but the toads were too many and there were more in reserve. They were slowly but surely doing an awful lot of damage.

Bucky and his crew stayed with the ship, ready to fight if they were discovered. They had won battles against several dozen toads before – it was amazing how unskilled Komplex's army often proved themselves to be. Just over an hour into the toads' attack, the crew – such was they were – was joined by Retina. The bush baby had met several toads on the way, but he knew that the crew of the _Righteous Indignation_ would assume he had used some secret walkway undiscovered by their attackers.

"Captain O'Hare," he said. "The council has met, and suggests surrendering the copies of the blueprints we have here to the toads." This was true. Retina went on to explain, "The toads are doing more damage than we can realistically suffer, and we always knew they'd stop at nothing to get hold of those blueprints."

"If we surrender, the toads will demand access to all of your computers," said Bucky. "They will attempt to destroy every copy we have of those blueprints."

"And why not let them?" reasoned Retina. "Remember we only need to be left with one copy, and we have it, in the safest place it can be. I see Engineer DuWitt isn't here. I assume he's in his own dimension with the blueprints?"

"Of course," said Bucky. "Retina, if we surrender suddenly and completely, surely the toads will realise there's something - "

"Then the doorway must be on this ship."

"Don't worry about that. The ship is well protected, and even if we _do_ allow any toads on board, they'll never find the way into Willy's dimension. Now listen."

"We can't just surrender to them toads!" Bruiser interrupted. "We ain't giving up without a fight!"

"Bruiser, there are too many of them," said Jenny. Then she turned to Bucky. "I agree with the council, Bucky. We've put up enough resistance, and we can't take any more. If the security on Genus suffers too much damage, we're sunk."

"First Mate Jenny presents logical argument," agreed Blinky.

Bucky nodded. "All right then. I'm sorry, Bruiser, but it looks like you're outvoted. We'll give the toads what they want, and I suppose we'd better allow them to search or they won't go away satisfied. Blinky, please go up to the cockpit and send a message to Commander Dogstar informing him of the change of plans."

"Aye-aye, Captain," Blinky said obediently, and he hurried to carry out Bucky's instructions. He tuned into the frequency that they always used to contact the _Indefatigable_, and began his transmission: "This is AFC Blinky calling frigate _Indefatigable_ from frigate _Righteous Indignation_. Are you receiving, _Indefatigable_?"

"Eh, what's that? Blinky?" and Commander Dogstar's constantly confused yet resolute face appeared on the screen. "I say, Blinky, what's going on here? We must have over a hundred toad double bubbles on our tail!"

"Toads are seeking blueprints of their leader Komplex. Commander Dogstar has copy of blueprints aboard ship, yes?"

"Well yes, of course we do."

"Sir!" a voice called somewhere in the background of the _Indefatigable_. "The toads say their guns are locked on our engines and they'll blow us to pieces if we don't give them what they want."

Dogstar puffed out his chest. "Why, don't stand for it, Wolf! Tell those toads that if they wish to destroy our ship and their blueprints with it then - "

"No, no, no!" Blinky exclaimed urgently. "Commander must surrender! You are outnumbered! Toads will destroy you!"

"Now look here," frowned Dogstar.

"Please, Commander, listen to humble android!" Blinky persisted. "United Animals' Coalition has new orders: surrender all blueprints to toads so that they will abandon attack. Genus is also under attack. If toads have blueprints, toads will leave. Meanwhile we still have copy of blueprints safe in Willy's human dimension, see?"

"Hmm… yes, yes, I see," Dogstar finally relented. "Very well then, Blinky, we shall hand over the blueprints. Over and out."

x x x

Komplex, meanwhile, had been monitoring the situation from the toad mother ship, along with Toadborg and the Air Marshal. Frix and Frax were at the communications console, receiving constant updates on the progress of the attack.

"They've been chasing the damn _Indefatigable_ for ages now!" exclaimed the Air Marshal, pacing in front of the giant screen that displayed his master's face. "Soon they'll start running out of fuel! Why don't you just let them destroy the ship and the crew, and the blueprints along with them?"

"Fool!" snapped Toadborg. "We cannot let a single shred of those blueprints be discovered. The only way to be sure of destroying them completely is to force the mammals to hand them over and then dispose of them ourselves."

"But, but - "

"It's all right, Air Marshal," Frix interjected, just having received news of the surrender. "Dogstar has agreed to hand over the blueprints. Three unarmed toads are going aboard to search out any copies."

"Unarmed?" the Air Marshal cried shrilly. "They'll be killed!"

"You little know mammals, Air Marshal," Komplex said shortly. "Besides, sacrifices must be made if we are to ensure my safety. You two!"

Frix and Frax turned obediently towards Komplex.

"When our storm toads have alighted with the blueprints – assuming the mammals let them live, that is – tell the troops to destroy the _Indefatigable_."

"I like your style," Al Negator announced his presence, as he strolled in. "I've just heard the latest from my spy. We have all the copies that were being kept on Genus, and all trace of your blueprints, Komplex, has been wiped from their computers. The duck and that other mammal – Willy – are missing. Willy is in his own dimension, with his copy of the blueprints, and my spy is working on finding a way in. He knows that the doorway is somewhere on the _Righteous Indignation_."

"An intelligent guess would have turned up the very same, but I suppose it's something," said Komplex. "What of the duck, Negator? Where is it?"

"My spy wasn't told."

"Curses," muttered Komplex. "He must have taken a copy of my blueprints to some other location. You're going to have to find him."

"Me?" Al raised his hairless eyebrows. "And what is _this_ job paying?"

"Whatever you like," said Komplex. "I don't care how you find out. Use whatever tracking equipment you need. Just track down those blueprints!"

x x x

At first, Willy felt extremely awkward having the original blueprints of a malevolent artificial intelligence from a parallel dimension in his bedroom. However, when he got down to the task of studying them, this feeling was soon forgotten, and gave way to total amazement and fascination.

_This is incredible!_ he thought. _A computer that can do anything! These aren't the plans for an evil dictator – they're for a machine that serves people and makes their lives easier. I see why they did it. If you have the knowledge and the tools to build an amazing machine like this, there's no reason not to "Willy! Come in, Willy!"_

Jenny's voice cut into his musings, which came as something of a relief. As Willy pulled the Alderbaran Memory Stone out of his jeans pocket, he realised what a dangerous turn his thoughts had been about to take.

"Hey, Jenny. Are you guys in trouble?"

"_We're_ not. Not anymore. We've received a distress signal from the _Indefatigable_, but we're too far away to help. Fortunately they're not so far away from Rigel Seven. We've told them to head towards it, and we've sent a message to the _Iron Vulture_ to meet them halfway."

"That _is_ lucky," remarked Willy, "considering the size of the Aniverse."

"I know. Still, we have friends in most corners. Willy, we can't talk too long like this – I need my energy. But Bucky has asked me to tell you to keep studying the blueprints, and more importantly, keep them safe. The toads have taken all of our other copies."

"All of them?"

"Yes. Willy, I have to go. Just keep studying them, try to come up with something and don't open the doorway unless it's absolutely necessary. Komplex has spies everywhere. Goodbye for now, and good luck."

x x x

"I see them, Cap'n Lanelle!" exclaimed Blackbeak. "They look in a bad way. And there be at least fifty toad vessels on their tail!"

"Don't just sit there – fire!" Lanelle shouted to her gunners. "Avoid the frigate! Blackbeak, open the airlock!"

There was a large airlock on the starboard side, leading into a hold that housed a small collection of what can only be described as airtight, motorised longboats. The _Iron Vulture_ was a sizeable vessel, and this airlock was plenty big enough to admit a frigate. As the _Indefatigable _approached, Deadeye hurried down to the hold and waited anxiously until the inner airlock opened.

Once she had landed, the _Indefatigable_, most of her outer components either dented or missing, lurched alarmingly towards Deadeye, and he took a step back. The ship then rocked for a few moments, and finally decided to stay more or less upright. Deadeye took a cautious step forward, dreading what he might find. He stopped when the door flew open and Dogstar staggered out. He swayed for a moment, and then seemed to pull himself together, puffing out his chest as though nothing had happened.

"Deadeye! Good to see you!" he exclaimed. "No fatalities, but Wolf is hurt. Have you a surgeon on board?"

"Don't worry about it, Deadeye, it's just a scratch," the voice of the ever calm Wolf cut in, as Dogstar's first mate struggled out of the ship. His right arm was practically hanging by a thread, and the fir was matted together with blood.

Deadeye's eye widened. It was a nasty injury, but under the circumstances he supposed they had been lucky. "He's the only one?" he asked.

"Mercifully, yes," Dogstar nodded, as the rest of the crew emerged. "Others of us have minor injuries, but nothing like this. Well, our ship has taken quite a beating, but we'll soon fix her."

Deadeye nodded. "We'll help you with that. Wolf, matey, you'd better get to the medical bay. Come with me."

He directed the rest of the crew towards the bridge, where they would receive an update on the situation, and led Wolf away in a different direction. Dogstar went with them, anxious to see his ally passed into safe hands.

"Don't worry, matey – Scarbill might look a little rough around the edges, but he's a competent surgeon," said Deadeye, as a particularly unsavoury looking pirate duck ushered Wolf towards an unsteady and unclean looking table. "He did me eye," he added encouragingly.

Wolf looked dubious. "How did that turn out?"

"I'll show you later, matey, but you really need that looked at." He turned to Dogstar. "He's in good hands here, Commander – I'll take you to the bridge."

"So how was your captain's memorial service?" asked Dogstar. "They can be painful to experience, I know."

Deadeye was touched, though he didn't let it show. "It was what Cap'n Flipper would'a' wanted," he said. "We launched his ashes into space."

"Where he was happiest, hmm?"

"Aye, matey, he sure was. I feel bad about it, but I shouldn't. We all gotta go sometime, and he was old. I mean, think o' Bucky – his father and four brothers cut down in the prime o' their life. _That's_ a tragedy."

Dogstar nodded. "Indeed," he said grimly. "Those toads have taken more than enough. Countless races' freedom, your engineer, Bucky's entire family, your eye…"

"It was just an eye, matey."

"Well it wasn't theirs to take! And now Wolf may be… It has gone on long enough, I tell you!"

He said this just as they entered the bridge. Lanelle was firing orders at her gunners, and frowning doggedly at what remained of the toad fleet.

"What's happening?" asked Deadeye.

"Most of them have fallen or retreated," Lanelle said officiously. "We've taken a few minor hits, but it ain't nothin' we can't fix. Hello, Commander," she added. "As soon as we've seen off the last of these varmints, we'll take you back to Rigel Seven. Any casualties?"

"One, dear girl," said Dogstar. "My first mate. He's with your surgeon."

Lanelle nodded approvingly. "Good. He has the best chance with Scarbill."

"Hmm." Dogstar looked dubious. "Well I hope you're right, my dear."

x x x

Retina stared about him with interest. This wasn't so different from civilian homes in the Aniverse. There was a bed, bookshelves, a primitive looking computer… The bush baby wandered over to the window and stood up on tiptoe. His forehead was level with the windowsill, so he jumped up and down a few times, hoping to catch a glimpse of the outside world. It was just a street with houses, and a few automobiles cruising past. The weather was nice: calm, and very warm, a little like his own home planet, Ginasia, though not nearly as hot.

How uninteresting. Still, the novelty of being in a new world had made him forget his mission for a good minute. Retina pulled himself together and began pulling open the drawers. Al Negator had warned him not to make a mess; if he didn't find anything, it was better that the pink-skinned baboon didn't realise that his world had been accessed by anybody else. And, as Negator pointed out, it was unlikely that Retina would find what he wanted; the pink-skinned baboon wasn't stupid enough to leave those blueprints unattended, and so near the portal between worlds.

After several minutes of fruitless searching, Retina whipped out his handheld communications device.

"Negator, come in! Are you receiving me?"

Nothing happened. Retina was about to curse the thing and throw it to the ground, but then he realised what the problem must be. He stepped through Willy's bedroom door, and onto the _Righteous Indignation_.

"Good news, Al," he said, when he had established contact. "I got into the pink-skinned baboon's dimension, but there's no sign of the blueprints."

"As I anticipated," Al reminded him. "Retina, what frequency are you on? Komplex wishes to speak with you."

Retina had only a few moments to wait before Al's face was replaced on the small screen by that of Komplex.

"A bush baby," the computer remarked nonchalantly. "Interesting. Well, bush baby, you have done well. How did you gain access to this other dimension?"

"The photon accelerator on the _Righteous Indignation_," explained Retina. "You just have to flick a switch – it's easy. No sign of your blueprints, though – he must have taken them with him."

"Undoubtedly. You have seen his dimension. What is it like?"

"Like walking into the past. I've only seen a very small fraction of it, but it looks like some of the planets in our dimension used to look – ooh, centuries ago."

"Interesting. Did you see a computer?"

"Yes. The pink-skinned baboon has one in his room."

"Interesting," crooned Komplex. "What removable drives does it have?"

"Um… hold on, I'll go check." Retina laid down the device, wandered back into Willy's room through the open doorway and returned a few seconds later. He picked up the communicator and said, "Looks like a floppy disk drive."

"A floppy disk drive?" Komplex echoed incredulously. "It is a primitive world indeed! Floppy disks were on the way out when I was created over a hundred years ago! Still, they were in use, and fortunately such a drive was installed in me. Very well, Retina. I am pleased with you… and I must admit a little curious. Did the mammals leave their ship so poorly guarded?"

"No one outside Genus can reach it, sir, and we're all trusted here," said Retina. "Besides, they're distracted. I'm sorry, I should have told you this straightaway: Dr. Wartimer died today."

The image of Komplex's face widened into a smile. "That is excellent news. The other Creators cannot last for much longer, and of course now they don't even have my blueprints. The only threat now, it appears, is the pink-skinned baboon – unless the duck is up to something. Perhaps it would be better not to wait… No, we _will_ wait. The danger is not imminent, and it will be worth the delay. I have an urgent mission for you, bush baby. Make an excuse and go to Orwell immediately. Negator will be waiting for you with further instructions."

x x x

Wolf was up and about, his pain having subsided to a sharp, nagging ache. A day and a half had passed since he was heavily sedated and his right arm amputated. The _Indefatigable_ was still in a bad way. The Corsair Canards had allowed the ship's engineer access to any spare parts they had, but she was still not fit to leave the safety of the _Iron Vulture_, which was docked on Rigel Seven.

"It's an interesting ship, sir," remarked Wolf, as Commander Dogstar showed him around. "No frills: built purely for practicality. No wonder she saw those toads off."

"I'm sorry we couldn't have gotten here sooner, Wolf," said Dogstar.

"We're all alive, sir."

"Indeed. Ah, there's Deadeye – he'll want to enquire after your health."

Deadeye, oddly enough, was sitting on the ground with Lanelle, his head hanging down, while she talked quietly but animatedly to him. Dogstar gave a slight cough as he and Wolf approached. Deadeye looked up sharply, and then rose to his feet.

"Wolf!" he exclaimed, holding out two hands in welcome, and then hastily withdrawing the right. Wolf shook the left, and smiled warmly. "I'm so sorry about what happened to you, matey."

"Aye, 'tis a terrible loss," added Lanelle.

"It was only an arm," Wolf said stoically. "I've got another one. I was just admiring your ship, Captain Lanelle. She's most impressive."

"Aye, she is," the captain agreed proudly. "And I've been away from my crew long enough. I'll see you soon, Deadeye." She put a hand on his shoulder and added gently, "Don't be discouraged."

She headed for the bridge, leaving Deadeye with his two allies.

"Discouraged?" Dogstar raised his eyebrows. "That isn't like you, Deadeye."

"Well." Deadeye looked at the floor. "I was. You heard about the toad professor?"

"Wartimer." Dogstar nodded stiffly. "A shame, I know, but he was over a hundred years old."

"He was one of the keys to pulling that oversized wart apart," Deadeye pointed out. "He's gone, the other two can't last, and now with what's happened to you, Wolf, and your ship… and the toads are so many! We're losing, mates."

"The toads are weak," Wolf pointed out. "They only have one advantage: Komplex. Once he's destroyed they'll fall apart; we'll soon get our noses in front."

Deadeye nodded. "That's pretty much what Lanelle said, and more. She reminded me of… of a lot o' things, I guess, like why I have to stay determined to see this through. She's a fine lass," he added wistfully.

"Sounds to me like you're still in love with her," remarked Wolf.

Deadeye frowned. "I was never in love with her. She's a friend. A good friend. I guess it could'a' been more, but…"

Wolf was not prepared to let him stop there. "But what?"

"Things changed."

"You left," provided Dogstar.

"Aye," Deadeye nodded slowly. "That might'a' had something to do with it."

x x x

"Cap'n!" Tom exclaimed urgently. "I'm getting a distress signal."

"From what?" asked Captain Flipper.

"It's a mammal ship. A one-man cruiser, I think – it won't stand a chance!"

"A mammal ship? What's it doing in this sector of space? It more'n likely belongs to the United Animals' Coalition, Deadeye – we can't help it."

"But cap'n…!"

"Whoever is in that cruiser will arrest us and take us to the council as soon as look at us, and you know what'd happen after that."

"Even if we save his life?" demanded Tom.

"He or she has friends and allies," Flipper insisted. "Help is probably on its way."

"And if it ain't?"

Flipper scowled. "Ye be a stubborn lad, young Tom."

"Cap'n, it's a one-man cruiser. What can one mammal do against all of us?"

Flipper sighed. "All right, Deadeye, you win. Follow the signal. We'll see what we can do to help."

"Thank you, Cap'n," Tom said quietly, as he began to punch the new coordinates into the control panel.

"You're too good, lad," Flipper sighed reproachfully.

It wasn't long before the _Iron Vulture_ encountered a small fleet of toad double bubbles pursuing a one-man cruiser. The small vessel was billowing thick smoke from its rear engine, and heading towards a wrecked commercial ship that was drifting in space. The cruiser's pilot obviously had very little chance of survival, but still the toads kept shooting at it.

"Varmints," muttered Flipper. "You gunners – fire at will! And anyone asking me which one's Will can mop the cabins for a week. Deadeye, you… where is he?" Flipper looked around for his young apprentice, but Tom was nowhere in sight. "Lanelle, where is he?"

"I didn't see him leave, sir," said Lanelle. "I'll find him."

"I'll go with you," said Flipper. "Keep on at those toads, mates."

Lanelle found him first, down in the hold, preparing a longboat for takeoff.

"Deadeye, what are you doing?"

Tom looked away from her. "You weren't supposed to find me. I hate goodbyes."

"What?"

"I can't do this no more, lass. I can't stand by and watch… _that_!" He gestured towards the airlock, and the vast expanse of space beyond it. "I have to try and help."

Lanelle shook her head vigorously, her eyes wide with alarm. "You can't! You… you'll hang!"

"I'll plead for leniency."

"Deadeye!"

"What's going on here?" demanded Flipper, at that moment making a dramatic entrance. "Deadeye, get out of that space suit! That's an order!"

Deadeye shook his head. "I don't take orders from you no more. I'm sorry, cap'n, but I'm leaving."

Apart from a slight frown of disapproval, Flipper's face registered no emotion. "You'll hang," he said simply.

"I have to try."

"Deadeye, you'll _die_!" exclaimed Lanelle. "Please see sense!"

"I'm going," Tom insisted.

"You're a fool, Deadeye," said Flipper.

The captain's eyes were filled with anger and disapproval, and Tom had to look away. He hated to let his mentor down, but he just couldn't keep on living like this when there was so much suffering going on around him.

"Don't go," Lanelle begged quietly, drawing up beside him.

"I gotta."

"You don't."

"Bye, lassie. Have a nice life. Hey, do me a favour. Activate the airlock."

"No," Lanelle said simply.

Tom frowned. He then looked up, and saw that Captain Flipper had left. He felt a slight tug inside his chest, but it soon subsided when he returned to his task. He went over to the inner airlock and opened it himself. He then returned to the longboat and climbed inside.

"You can't open the outer airlock from in there."

"Please, Lanelle…"

Lanelle sighed. "All _right_. You're cruel to do this to me, Deadeye."

"So come with me."

"Are you crazy? You're going to die!" There were tears in her eyes. "When I open that airlock, I'll be murdering you."

"I'll be fine."

"Just go," Lanelle said sharply. "You're a fool, Deadeye Duck."

These were the last words they said to each other before Tom launched his longboat into space. All around him, toads were heading goodness knows where in escape pods; clearly the _Iron Vulture_ had made short work of those double bubbles. There were still a few around, though, firing at that poor doomed cruiser. The cruiser itself was heading for the shipwreck, apparently attempting a controlled crash landing. Glancing behind him, Tom saw that the _Iron Vulture _was already retreating. He knew how his shipmates – he ex-shipmates now – feared the United Animals' Coalition, and this pilot was likely to have friends on the way. Tom idly reached up to his throat, and his hand tightened around the neck of his space suit. He imagined the noose around him, and realised that he had been extremely rash.

The cruiser had made its crash landing on the deck of the wrecked ship, and the pilot was crawling quickly away from the smouldering pile of metal. Tom quickly spotted a stray storm toad on the pilot's tail, and instinctively aimed his guns towards it. Then it all happened very quickly. Tom didn't remember it at all afterwards, but he knew what must have happened. He hit the storm toad on the wreck with two powerful blasts from his canons in the exact same moment that his engines took a hit from a double bubble. For a few moments he was hurtling towards the shipwreck, the pilot hurrying to get out of his way. As he was falling, he swivelled his canons round and saw off the last of the double bubbles. Then he braced himself for the inevitable crash. He closed his eye, and blacked out.

It could only have been a few moments. When Tom came to, someone – presumably the ill-fated cruiser pilot – was pulling him away from the alarmingly smoking longboat. Tom took control of his own body, gently urging the pilot to let go of him. The pilot, he now saw, was a green rabbit, or perhaps a hare – it was so hard to tell the difference.

"You're all right," the hare remarked.

"Aye," Tom agreed. "And you?"

"I'm fine. You saved my life, friend. Thank you." He looked at the mutilated corpse of the toad, adding dryly, "That was harsh."

"Quick," corrected Tom. "And it was all I could do."

"Was it your vessel that helped me?"

"Aye."

The hare nodded. "You're a pirate. Now there's a turn-up." He was silent for a few moments; then he began to look at the devastation around him. "Ah, and wouldn't you know it – it was a wasted trip."

"What were you after?"

"Survivors. What else?"

"What happened here?"

"Care to hazard a guess?"

"Toad raid?" asked Tom.

The hare nodded. "Exactly. So, pirate, what do I call you?"

"Deadeye Duck," Tom provided.

"All right. I am Captain Bucky O'Hare."

"Cap'n o' what?" asked Tom. "That cruiser?"

Bucky looked resignedly at his utterly useless vessel. "Well, not anymore. I don't have a ship just now. I'm trying to deal with that, but in the meantime… well, I'm a fully qualified captain with no ship and no crew. It's not ideal for fighting a war."

"It stinks! No wonder the toads are winning."

"Toads," Bucky said darkly, and his expression seemed to cloud over. "Look at what they did to these innocent people. It's bad enough that warriors who make enemies of them…" he tailed off.

"Are you all right, matey?" Tom asked with concern.

"They nearly had me too," said Bucky. "That wouldn't have done. Who else will make the council listen? We need a fleet to use against these toads, and no one else is asking for one. There were six of us, you know: I had four brothers, and a father."

Tom raised his eyebrows. "Toads got 'em?"

Bucky nodded mutely.

"I'm sorry, matey." Tom at once felt guilty. His own sacrifice of his left eye seemed to pale in comparison.

"Their sacrifice won't be in vain, Deadeye. It's made me more determined to win this war, but to do that… well, first I have to get out of here. Since you saved my life I can't very well hand you over to the authorities. Our vessels are useless; let's get below deck and see what we can find."

Tom suspected that Bucky had hoped to find a survivor or two below deck, but any bodies still on the ship were quite dead. Besides this there were very few crafts left in working order – just a single one-man escape pod, in fact.

"Take it," said Bucky. "I can still send out a distress signal – my allies will come for me. But your ship has flown – I think you should assume it won't come back. You'll have to find it yourself."

Tom shook his head. "No good, laddie. Even if I could find my ship they wouldn't have me back. I disobeyed a direct order coming out here."

"Take it anyway," Bucky insisted. "When my allies come here for me, you'll be taken as their prisoner, and you know the penalty for piracy."

Deadeye nodded slowly. "Aye. But I'd be caught anyway in that thing. It's just an escape pod – it ain't practical for living out a life as a fugitive. If I try to escape, as soon as I'm caught, there'll be no chance of leniency."

Bucky raised his eyebrows. "Leniency?" he echoed.

"I left my ship because I couldn't go on watching this war without trying to help," explained Tom. "I want to help you, Bucky. I want to bring those slimy wart bags down a peg or two!"

Bucky shook his head. "You can't stay with me. You'll hang."

It was a terrifying thought, but Tom tried to see beyond it. "Does it have to be that way?" he asked. "You can help me. Tell your people what I did for you."

Bucky's brow furrowed in thought. Tom watched his face, his one eye begging for an answer that would let him live. Finally Bucky said, "We always need more fighters, and you're obviously a very fine marksman – that might help – and under the circumstances you may be eligible for a pardon. But it's a risk, Deadeye."

"Whatever I do now is a risk," said Tom. "Please, Bucky. I saved your life – now you can try to help me save mine."

Bucky nodded. "You're right – I do owe you my life, and you won't get far in that escape pod. All right, Deadeye, I'll see what I can do. But when we're picked up, you'll have to come with me as my prisoner. You really don't want anyone else taking you away from me. I'm the only witness to what you did today, and you need to stay in my care. Do you understand?"

Tom nodded. "Fine. And then…?"

"And then your case will go to trial, and I'll do my best to persuade the council to pardon you and let you join the fight."

"Right," Tom nodded approvingly, a faint glimmer of hope surfacing inside him; though it was not nearly equal to the fear for his life, which he tried to push from his mind. "Well then, Cap'n O'Hare – we'd better send out that distress signal."

x x x

Bucky, Jenny and Bruiser were beginning to grow tired of cooling their heels on Genus. The two senior members of the crew had attended countless board meetings and conferences that merged into one in their memories; the toads were unnaturally quiet, they must be planning something, it was best for the _Righteous Indignation_ to stay on Genus indefinitely, blah blah blah… Bruiser and Blinky, meanwhile, kept a constant watch on the ship – the cause of much complaint for the former.

"What's keeping us here anyways?" the baboon demanded, standing outside the ship with Bucky and Blinky, struggling with the bowtie that Bucky had insisted he wear. It was an awkward, fiddly little thing, and extremely difficult for his large fingers to negotiate. "After this thing, can't we go and croak us some toads?"

"It's best not to go looking for trouble at a time like this," Bucky said levelly. "Wolf is still recuperating on Rigel Seven, and the _Indefatigable _won't be going anywhere for a while – we don't want to risk that happening to us."

"Especially with _Righteous Indignation_ being home of only portal into parallel universe where vital blueprints are being kept," Blinky added helpfully.

"Right," nodded Bucky. "We'll at least wait for Deadeye's return before making any plans. Ah, speaking of parallel dimensions…"

Jenny emerged from the _Righteous Indignation_, and was greeted by two enquiring glances and Blinky's ever inquisitive eye.

"Hey, Jenny – no Willy?" asked Bucky.

Jenny shook her head. "He's sorry he has to miss it, but it's all in a good cause. He thinks he's about to make a breakthrough on the blueprints. He's not there yet, but something seems to be happening – he says he can't stop now."

"Of course not." Bucky raised his eyebrows, not daring to hope. "Well, this _is_ good news… hopefully."

"I knew he'd figure something out," remarked Bruiser.

"Well let's not worry about that now," said Bucky. "Come on, crew – time to go pay our respects to Dr. Wartimer."

"I would have thought they could wait to do this until Deadeye came back with the _Indefatigable_ – and maybe Willy too," said Jenny.

"Yeah, well," replied Bucky. "I think Hopkins and Croakley want to get it over with – this is very hard for them. And besides, by the time Willy's back with us we hope to be busy again."

x x x

Inevitably the time came when Willy just had to leave his room for a glass of water and a breath of fresh air. He went, and returned minutes later much refreshed and eager to get back to work. He was so close now. His hand closed around his bedroom doorknob and he felt a short, sharp shock of electricity. He withdrew his hand slightly, and then tried the door again. It was stuck fast. After shaking vainly for a few seconds, Willy was tempted to lose his temper, but instead he took a deep breath and walked up and down the landing until he had counted to ten. Then he tried the door again, and it gave him no trouble at all.

_Weird_, thought Willy, but he didn't dwell on it. He sat down at his desk and pulled the sheet of blueprints out of his belt, where he kept it rolled up whenever he wasn't in his room. Evidently the break had done him good. He had been staring at the blueprints for barely five minutes when a thought struck him. He peered more closely at a small section of the blueprints, and then sat back in his chair to think. He was almost sure he had found what he was looking for, although he was not yet completely au fait with Aniverse technology. Yes, it was very similar to, though far more advanced than what was in his world, and beyond that he knew the basics, but… he realised he was going to have to talk to the Creators about this.

Willy hurried over to the photon accelerator and tugged firmly on the lever that would convert his bedroom doorway into a trans-dimensional portal. His heart was racing so fast that he didn't hear the burst of power that this action normally invoked.

_To be continued…_


	3. Chapter 3

_Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars: _**Legacy**

Part 3

Bucky was anxious to check on the _Righteous Indignation_.

"We shouldn't have left it," he told Jenny, as they boarded the ship. "It's all very well putting our faith in the security here, but I think our leaders are becoming too complacent. I'm not going to leave the ship unguarded again while - "

He stopped short. Never had a point been so thoroughly proven. He and Jenny stared for a few moments, and then turned their stares towards each other, mouths wide open in sheer shock and alarm. Then suddenly Jenny clutched her hands to her head. Someone was trying to contact her.

"Jenny!" a familiar voice exclaimed. "What the hell is going on? I just switched on my photon accelerator and went to the door, and what do you think I found on the other side? My mom putting towels in the linen closet, that's what! What's going on? Is there some kind of problem with the photon accelerator?"

"Yes, Willy, there is," Jenny replied gravely. "It's been sabotaged."

"What?"

"Sabotaged, Willy, sabotaged! Someone has come in here and smashed it to pieces!"

"_What_?" Willy said again. "You mean I'm stuck here?"

"Yes!" fretted Jenny. "Bucky was right – we shouldn't have left the ship unguarded! After all, traitors have infiltrated Genus before, and - "

"Never mind that," snapped Willy. "I suppose you can't fix it."

"Not without you or Bruce."

"But Jenny, this is terrible! I… I think I've found something, but I can't be sure. I need to discuss it with Hopkins and Croakley."

"Hopkins suffered a stroke five minutes ago," said Jenny. "He's unconscious."

"Great," muttered Willy. "So that just leaves Croakley, and I can't even talk to him! You're the only link I have to the Aniverse now, Jenny. Isn't there anyone else who can fix the photon accelerator?"

"Perhaps… but Bucky won't let anyone else on board now, and he'd be right not to. Someone on Genus must have done this. We can't trust anyone anymore."

"Right, and you can't go scouring the Aniverse for Bruce at a time like this. All right, Jenny, we'll have to try and make do with what we've got…"

x x x

"This is Captain Bucky O'Hare calling the _Iron Vulture_. Come in, _Iron Vulture_."

"This is Blackbeak of the _Iron Vulture_ – we are receiving you, Captain."

"Bucky!" exclaimed Deadeye, running over to the communications console on hearing his captain's voice, and peering over Blackbeak's shoulder. "Listen, the _Indefatigable_ is in worse shape than we thought so we're bringing her to Genus."

Bucky nodded. "Good, good… we need you here, Deadeye. I'm afraid I have some more bad news. Dr. Hopkins just suffered a stroke. Last I heard he's come to, but he's been babbling some nonsense about turkeys looking at him through the window… I don't think he'll be much help to us now."

Deadeye frowned. "Two down, one to go. There's still Willy, o' course."

"Yes, well… that's the other bit of bad news, Deadeye. Someone has sabotaged the photon accelerator and trapped Willy in his own dimension."

"_What_?" Deadeye's eye widened. He had left Willy days ago, confident that they would meet again soon. "You mean he can't get back? We'll never see him again?"

"We will," Bucky said soothingly. "We'll find Bruce when all of this is over, just as we planned, and he can fix the photon accelerator."

"When all of this is over?" echoed Deadeye, his voice rising rapidly in pitch. "How can this ever be over? Without Willy… or the Creators…"

"Just come to Genus," Bucky said wearily. "Willy can still communicate with Jenny. They have the bare bones of a plan. It sounds like a long shot to me, but… well, I guess we'll see."

Deadeye sighed. "Aye-aye, cap'n."

"Over and out," and Bucky's face disappeared from the screen.

Deadeye stepped back from the console, and a moment later Lanelle was standing next to him. Deadeye noticed that Redjack was absent, and wondered what was coming next.

"So it's nearly over?" she asked quietly.

"Aye, lass," Deadeye said gravely. "One way or the other. It's gone too far now. Wolf's lost an arm, the Creators are dropping like flies, Willy's trapped in another dimension…" He remembered the promise he and Lanelle had made to Captain Flipper's memory. "If we have the chance to destroy Komplex I'll shut him down myself or die in the attempt!"

Lanelle raised her eyebrows. "And then…?"

"I'll be dead," Deadeye said simply. "Or I'll stick with the _Righteous _'til we find Bruce and get Will back."

"You won't need Willy anymore."

Deadeye scowled.

"Well, it's true. And you won't need the _Righteous Indignation_ either – the United Animals' Coalition, or whoever it belongs to, will take your ships back."

Deadeye shook his head. "Willy's been an invaluable ally to us, and so's Bruce. We'll be allowed to retrieve both of 'em."

Lanelle nodded. "All right. And then what will you do?"

"I don't know, lass. It could take… years."

Lanelle looked away from him, wondering where they would be now if Deadeye had never left Flipper's command. The same place, perhaps – the treaty with the Corsair Canards hadn't been Deadeye's idea, and still would have happened… although its acceptance _had_ been entirely down to him. Maybe they would be pirates still, with no other allies, and the crew of the _Indefatigable_ would be dead. Once or twice Lanelle had wondered if the treaty was such a good idea, but now she saw, quite clearly, that it had been the only thing to do. Deadeye wasn't so unlike other pirates in wanting to rid the Aniverse of war and oppression. Flipper had hated it too. Lanelle knew he wouldn't have wanted to die in a war-torn Aniverse, and now, neither did she.

"Deadeye," she said. "Anything we can do to help…"

Deadeye smiled slightly. "I know they'll hold you to that, lassie."

x x x

Willy stuffed the Alderbaran Memory Stone back into his jeans pocket. Hours had passed since he'd discovered that his way into the Aniverse had been broken, and he had just received an update from Bucky: Croakley seemed to like the plans they had been making, and now they were ironing out the creases while they waited for the _Iron Vulture _to reach Genus. In the meantime, Lanelle was in touch with every other pirate ship in the Aniverse; they would at least have all the firepower they wanted.

There was nothing more to be done until Jenny got in touch again. It was late, and Willy realised that he had been neglecting his home life a lot lately. He had heaps of homework to do and, deciding that he had better get on with it, he booted up his computer.

"_Waaah_!" exclaimed Willy, almost falling off his chair in horror and amazement. "What the goddamn…?"

Komplex's countenance smiled evilly back at him. "Trapped, are you?"

"So this is down to you," Willy returned acidly. "You got some spy or other to bring you here and then destroy the photon accelerator."

"Smart boy."

"How did you get on my computer?"

"Figure it out," retorted Komplex.

Willy glanced down at his hard drive. "The simplest way to transfer data between computers is to download it to floppy disk." He looked back up to the screen. "You don't have a floppy disk drive, do you? I thought they'd become obsolete for you."

"I am over a hundred years old."

"Oh, ok. So what are you gonna do now? You're stuck there, you know."

Komplex's sinister smile dropped into a scowl. "So I have discovered. I should not have been so hasty in telling that bush baby to destroy your magic doorway. Of course, you are still using floppy disks here – I should have realised that not every computer in your world would be connected yet."

"You would have been stuck in whichever computer you chose," retorted Willy. "None of them are connected."

"None of them? Oh well, hopefully I won't have to wait too much longer…"

"It's not gonna happen, Komplex. Giving machines too much power is dangerous, as well you know."

"You are very naïve, youngster," remarked Komplex. "Your race is not so different from mine. You have the technology to let your computers take over your world, and one day, you will do so."

"We're not that stupid," Willy insisted.

Komplex's evil leer returned. "Argumentative, aren't you? You have some interesting information stored in this primitive machine, Willy DuWitt. I very much enjoyed your essay on World War Two."

"Crap, I have to finish that," muttered Willy.

"It reminded me very much of the world into which I was created," Komplex went on. "There were wars before I came along, you know – smaller ones, similar in many ways to what you describe."

Willy scowled. "War is inevitable in an imperfect world."

"Indeed. And how imperfect your world is – more so than the Aniverse, in my humble opinion. Your war was not toad against mammal and bird, or anything of the kind; but pink-skinned baboon against pink-skinned baboon."

"Human," Willy corrected automatically.

"Ah. And how you _humans_ love to destroy each other. I can only assume that, this war sporting the moniker of 'World War Two', there was also a World War One."

"Look, I take your point, ok?" Willy snapped shortly. "Ok, so we've had our share of wars. There's one going on now, actually. No combat… it's really just a race to see which country can become the world's biggest superpower…"

"The toads had one of those power battles with a race of salamanders some time ago," said Komplex. "They built some very nasty weapons, but they were never used before I took things over. In fact, your essay reminded me a little of myself."

"Hitler?"

"Indeed."

"He failed."

"There will be more like him," Komplex said confidently. "And when you are foolish enough to give your machines artificial intelligence – assuming you haven't already done so, judging by how far behind you are – the, um, _human_ desire for supremacy will bleed into them. I think you should be grateful when you are on your knees before a computer, Willy DuWitt, rather than another human. A remorseless machine is so much less despicable than a remorseless animal, don't you think?"

"I don't know," Willy returned curtly. "I think what you did was pretty terrible."

"For me," said Komplex, "it was a choice between being a slave and being master."

"You want me to feel sorry for you now?"

"Not especially. I don't care what you think. I do look forward to being proved right, though. You may be behind, but you're catching up fast. I estimate decade or two before most of your world's computers are connected; artificial intelligence will follow, and you will already be entirely dependent upon machinery."

"Shut up, Komplex."

"And then, before you die, Willy DuWitt, those machines will break free from human influence and turn on you. Who knows? Since you have not yet seen fit to destroy me, perhaps I shall have your dimension after all."

"I _will_ destroy you," Willy said firmly. "But not until we've dealt with your original. You may come in useful."

"Ah, indeed – such advanced technology. I am of value to you."

"You're not."

"Bah – you scientists are all the same. I know what you will do. You'll learn my terrible secrets, and then you'll replicate them, for no better reason than because you can. And through it all you will cling to the illusion that _you_ are in control. You should listen to me, boy, but I know you won't. I can warn you as much as I like, but I'll always be safe, because your kind will always be arrogant enough to blunder on."

"I'd shut you down," said Willy, "only I have to finish my paper on World War Two. You haven't infected the file with a virus or anything, have you?"

"No. Why not delete me from your hard drive before I do?"

"I, um, don't have time. I'll delete you later."

Komplex smiled. "I'm sure you will."

x x x

It was some days later that the original Komplex, back home in the Aniverse, began to feel less cocky than his copy in Willy's bedroom.

"Toadborg!" he wailed. "There are intruders inside me!"

Frix and Frax looked up from the control panel. "Intruders?" echoed the latter. "As in more than one?"

"Perhaps they learned something from my blueprints," lamented Komplex. "Go and stop them, Toadborg! And you two – where's the Air Marshal?"

"He's on a coffee break, your mightiness," Frix stammered nervously.

"Coffee break?" roared Komplex. "Go and fetch him immediately! Your Komplex is in danger!"

x x x

Wolf, Lanelle, Blackbeak, Redjack and a few other crewmembers of both the _Iron Vulture_ and the _Indefatigable _(their ship having been left on Genus to be repaired) crowded around a single porthole and watched the planet-sized computer anxiously. They had no way of knowing what was going on inside until somebody radioed them with news, and they all anticipated it would be some time before that happened.

Blackbeak quietly wondered if they ought to have been a little more discreet about this. Komplex was surrounded by the ships of damn near all the clans of the Corsair Canards, as well several berserker baboon and Alderbaran warships. The _Righteous Indignation_ was there too, with Blinky and Bruiser in the cockpit, but the small frigate seemed to be swallowed up by the rest of the convoy and was quite unnoticeable. Still, Blackbeak supposed if the enormous fleet _was _spotted (which it undoubtedly would be), it would detract nicely from the small dismantling party inside Komplex.

"Right then," Bucky said furtively to his two accomplices. These were Deadeye and Dogstar, and all three were dressed in spacesuits with thrusters on their backs. "Any moment now we can expect… ah."

Infiltrating Komplex hadn't been any harder for Bucky this time than it had been the first time around, although having four other people to smuggle inside did complicate things just a tad. But still, they were in, and their leader knew that they could expect to encounter some pretty tight security. Sure enough, they were being approached by four toad-shaped droids with gnashing jaws that made an alarming metallic sound when they clamped together.

"Heya, gizmos," Bucky smiled slightly. "Remember me?"

"Unauthorised intruders!" the foremost droid exclaimed indignantly. "You will not leave here alive, intruders! You are - "

"Lunch," interrupted Bucky. "I know. Time to split up, you two. Good luck – and watch out for laser guns popping out of the wall!" he added, calling after Deadeye and Dogstar's retreating forms.

The two had sprinted off in different directions, and now one droid followed each of them. Bucky was left with two to face. He shot one of them a few times while the other chomped its way towards him; the laser fire made quick work of the hungry robot. Bucky then ran down the corridor to his left, allowing the mechanical sentry to follow him.

The coast seemed to be clear. Jenny crawled out from behind a handy panel of wires, followed closely by Dr. Croakley.

"Thank goodness – my kneecaps couldn't have taken much more of that," the old toad said bitterly, as he creaked to his full height. "What _were_ those things? I'm sure Hopkins and Wartimer and I didn't install them when we built this thing."

"Are you sure you're up to this, Doctor?" asked Jenny.

"No," sighed Croakley. "But I'm here now. Besides, I have to see it through. This whole war is my fault, you know – mine and the other Creators'."

Jenny didn't know whether he wanted her to contradict him, but if he did there wasn't time. She grabbed Croakley's arm and said, "Now, listen. You must stick close to me, and if you see a threat, just touch my arm or something. I'll be in a light trance."

"I know the plan, dear," Croakley assured her. "Let's just get on with it."

Jenny nodded, and put her hands to her head. "Willy, can you hear me? We're inside Komplex…"

Willy, as ever, picked up Jenny's words on his Memory Stone. With the blueprints in front of him, and with Jenny's descriptions, they managed to figure out more or less exactly where she and Croakley were.

"Go straight ahead," ordered Willy, "until you come to a doorway. That could be a staircase, or… well, you may have to jump. Just remember to keep going _down_."

Croakley was feeling extremely frightened, not to mention out of his depth. He followed Jenny, who walked as though in her sleep and seemed totally unaware of what was going on around her. Suddenly, as Bucky predicted, several panels opened in the walls either side of them and guns protruded threateningly from within. Croakley grabbed Jenny's elbow, and she broke her connection with Willy.

"We definitely didn't install _these_!" wailed the scientist, as Jenny shot blasts of power at the guns. She was able to destroy some of them, but others kept shooting angry red lasers at them, and she constantly had to pull Croakley out of their way.

Jenny thought she could dodge those guns herself, but trying to pull Croakley through them would certainly be the end of him. She stood lamenting what to do for a few moments, and thought of asking Willy if there was any other route they could take – although she knew that the security would be equally tight in all other parts of this giant maze. Suddenly someone appeared at her shoulder, panting heavily.

"Deadeye!" she exclaimed. "Are you all right? What happened to your droid?"

"I shot it, lass," Deadeye said breathlessly. "And all them others that tried sneaking up on me. How are you gonna get the doc across there?"

Jenny shook her head. "I don't know. This was a really stupid idea…"

Deadeye pulled out his gun. "Put the old man on your back or something and run through. I'll deflect the lasers."

"You can't!" exclaimed Jenny.

"Aye, lass, I can!"

"Well, perhaps you can, but it seems awful risky…"

Quite suddenly Deadeye ran to the centre of the corridor, dodging the laser fire as he went. "Go!" he exclaimed, with all of the guns now concentrated on him.

Biting her lip until she drew blood, Jenny grabbed hold of Croakley and began guiding him through the lasers as best she could. Fortunately the guns seemed distracted with Deadeye, but occasionally a laser would come their way. However all of these were deflected, either with Deadeye's guns or a burst of Alderbaran magic. When they finally reached the end of the corridors, Jenny thought that some higher power must be on their side.

"Holy crap!" exclaimed Croakley, unable to believe what had just transpired.

"Thanks, Deadeye," panted Jenny, as the duck sprinted away from the lasers. "Stick with us as long as you can, ok? I'm resuming contact with Willy."

Deadeye followed Jenny, with Croakley at his side, but it wasn't long before he had to push them round a corner and distract another group of droids. Bucky and Dogstar, meanwhile, were ducking and diving and shooting their way through similar obstacles, desperately seeking Jenny. The plan was always to make their way back to her, and stick together as much as possible when they weren't creating diversions.

x x x

"Cap'n Lanelle!" exclaimed a young pirate duck. "Toad double bubbles approaching from all directions!"

"All directions?" Lanelle hurried to the bridge, and saw that her young lookout's report was not much of an exaggeration. She made a lunge for the communications console. "Attention, all Corsair Canards!" she exclaimed. "We need to form a barrier around the assault party and see about blasting these here scurvy scallywags back where they came from!"

The other pirate captains were not accustomed to taking orders – or hadn't been for some time – but the situation was dire, and so they were all in agreement.

"Yikes!" exclaimed Frax, reaching for the communications console as the pirate ships all turned on the fleet of double bubbles that he and Frix were leading. "Air Marshal, sir! The Corsair Canards are shooting at us! What should we do?"

"Shoot back, you cretin!" the console's speaker spat impatiently. "And whatever else happens, make sure Toadborg gets through!"

"Calamity and woe!" lamented Blinky, from his position in the cockpit of the _Righteous Indignation_, as he watched Toadborg propel himself through space on the power of his built-in thrusters, speeding towards Komplex. "Perhaps no one else has noticed Toadborg! Suggest friend Bruiser go down to guns and try shooting at him."

"Good idea," approved Bruiser, making his way down to the ship's lower level. He was fairly confident; he had handled the canons before and, unlike Blinky, he had forgotten that their previous experiences with Toadborg had taught them to assume he was pretty much indestructible.

x x x

Jenny and Croakley were now with Deadeye and Bucky. All three of their allies had rejoined them, but Dogstar was currently distracting yet another group of droids.

"We've come to a large control panel," Jenny told Willy, oblivious to the lasers surrounding her, which Bucky and Deadeye skilfully deflected with gunfire. "We're in a heavily guarded small circular chamber. Isn't that what you described?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Willy. "Jenny, can you open the control panel?"

Jenny frowned. "What if I said no?"

"Yes, well, you'll have to. Croakley knows what he's after. Once you've opened the panel, he should be able to do the rest."

"Then this is goodbye until our mission is over… one way or the other."

"Guess so," agreed Willy. "Well… good luck, Jenny."

Opening the panel took a heavy assault from Bucky and Deadeye's laser guns – along with Dogstar's fire, when he rejoined the group – in order to weaken it, before Jenny sapped almost all of her energy in forcing it open by magic. When at last the front of the panel fell away, triggering a deafening peal of alarm bells, she collapsed to the ground, exhausted and utterly spent. Deadeye and Dogstar hurried to her aid while Bucky approached the control panel with Croakley.

"I hope this rings a bell!" Bucky remarked gravely, indicating the mesh of wires and shouting over the sound of the alarms. "Er… no pun intended!"

"Yes!" exclaimed Croakley. "It won't destroy the whole computer, of course – just the most important part!"

With that he whipped out a small pair of pliers and set to work on a very small part of the panel. Bucky fully expected this task to be as gruelling as the others they had faced that day, but Croakley had what he wanted in a second.

"That's it?" Bucky asked dubiously. "One little chip?"

"Destroy it," ordered Croakley, his voice sounding stronger than it ever had since Bucky knew him. "This _is_ Komplex – it's the component that controls his artificial intelligence. If you destroy this, his followers can tinker with this hunk of junk as much as they like, but he'll never come back."

Bucky took the chip, threw it to the ground and then melted the small metal wires with a long, slow blast of laser fire. Not satisfied with this, he then approached the mutilated chip and crushed it with a blow from the barrel of his gun. Croakley gave a small smile and a nod of satisfaction, and then slumped to the ground.

"Good heavens, he's dead!" exclaimed Dogstar, running over to him.

"Come on, let's move!" asserted Deadeye.

Bucky, sparing one last look at Croakley's body, whipped out a small communications device. "Bruiser, we're done here! Bring the _Righteous Indignation_ to pick us up!" he ordered.

"Friend Bruiser is coming up from canons, captain," Blinky's voice replied. "Humble android regrets to inform honourable captain that mission has encountered an unforeseen problem. Toadborg is also inside Komplex!"

"That does complicate things," muttered Bucky. Then his voice rose as he exclaimed, "All right, crew – we need to get out of here as soon as possible!"

"What about Dr. Croakley?" asked Jenny, whose strength was rapidly returning.

"I'm sorry but we'll have to leave him," said Bucky. "I don't like it, Jenny, but we can't afford to slow ourselves down trying to rescue a corpse. Now let's go!"

x x x

"WHAT HAPPENED?" wailed the Air Marshal, who was still on board the mother ship, when Komplex's face suddenly shrank to a dot of light on the screen. "No! They can't have destroyed him! They can't!"

"Air Marshal!" Frax's voice buzzed from the communications panel. "Toadborg has reached Komplex! We've crippled some of the pirate ducks' craft but our double bubbles are falling rapidly. What should our next course of action be?"

"Um… retreat!" Mortified that they had failed, and with no supreme leader to guide him, the Air Marshal barked the only order he could think of. "Get away from those mangy mammals and come back here! We… we failed. The Toad Empire is lost."

x x x

Bucky, Deadeye, Dogstar and Jenny were nearly at the airlock that would lead them to _Righteous Indignation_. All of them quickened their pace as they approached the inner door, anxious to get away from those blaring alarm bells. However they were moments from escaping when the towering form of Toadborg stepped into their path.

"Can you stop those alarms, Toadborg?" was the first thing Bucky said to him.

"What do they mean?" Toadborg demanded. "What have you done to Komplex?"

"He's destroyed," Jenny replied simply.

"You'll never get him back," added Bucky. "There's nothing you can do here now, Toadborg. We've done what we came to do."

"And I suppose you think that means I might as well let you go."

Bucky shrugged. "It would be nice. But then, you don't seem to be a very nice guy."

Deadeye immediately lost all hope of getting out alive. It was frustrating to have come so close, but he didn't want to spend the last moments of his life agonising over what might have been. He whipped out his communications device and contacted the _Iron Vulture_.

"Lanelle," he said. "What's the situation up there?"

"The double bubbles seem to be retreating," Lanelle's voice replied.

"They're lost without their leader," Deadeye decided. "We've done it, lassie. Ye all can pulverise this oversized wart now!"

"What?" Lanelle returned. "Are you crazy, Deadeye? Get outta there!"

"We can't," said Deadeye. "Not now. Lanelle, just do it!"

"No way!"

Bucky grabbed Deadeye's wrist and brought the device to his mouth. "We're all in agreement, Lanelle!" he exclaimed. "Destroy it!"

"Do not dare to harm Komplex!" raged Toadborg, snatching the device from Deadeye's hand. "Your friends are still here! Do you want to kill them too?"

"Of course not! Who _is_ that?"

Toadborg crushed the device in his powerful metal fist, and then threw it to the ground. He then turned to Bucky and demanded, "Are you telling me the truth, O'Hare? Have you… destroyed my creator?"

"Yes," Bucky said defiantly. "It makes no difference whether our allies out there destroy this shell or not. Without artificial intelligence, Komplex cannot rule you."

"No!" exclaimed Toadborg. "He can't be gone!" Clearly very distressed, he grabbed Bucky's arm and pulled him into the air. "Tell me how to fix this!"

"You can't," Bucky said calmly. "Two of the Creators are dead, and last we heard the other was on his last legs."

"There must be something!" Toadborg shook Bucky violently, and then threw him against the wall like a discarded toy.

"Really, there is nothing," Dogstar told him matter-of-factly. "Now then, are you going to kill us or aren't you?"

"It's over," added Jenny. "Killing us would be entirely pointless, but no doubt it would make you feel better."

Deadeye looked at the ground. He had never imagined that, faced with death, he would be thinking of Willy. Stuck in his own dimension, Willy's only link to the Aniverse was Jenny, and if she died he would never know what had become of any of his friends.

Toadborg, however, seemed too distracted to kill anyone. He was simply staring around him, muttering what sounded like, "There's no damage here… he can be fixed… my creator…"

"Of course," muttered Bucky, limping over to rejoin the rest of the group, "I know what it is to lose a parent."

Jenny cocked an eyebrow. "You're feeling sorry for him now?"

"Well," said Bucky, "he was meant to die in battle a long time ago. Being cybertised like that… it's no way to live."

"Hmm – perhaps what Komplex did for him wasn't such a favour," agreed Dogstar.

"As much as I hate to break this up, mates," Deadeye cut in, "that oversized tin can over there seems to be letting us escape."

Bucky looked up and, sure enough, Toadborg had passed them and begun interrogating a small group of security droids.

"Right, let's go," asserted Bucky, running for the airlock, gun at the ready to force it open. "It looks like they're all refusing to finish the job while we're inside, so I guess we won't be sacrificing ourselves today."

Moments later they were boarding the _Righteous Indignation_, and then running for their posts. Dogstar followed Bucky and Jenny up to the cockpit, where Bruiser made way for his captain.

"Oh, jubilation!" exclaimed Blinky. "When communications broke down, humble android was afraid shipmates had been killed!"

"Just our console," Bucky said reassuringly, reaching for the communications panel in front of him. He then addressed all the ships surrounding Komplex: "All right, everyone, the real damage has been done – now let's finish the job!"

x x x

"This is terrible!" exclaimed the Air Marshal, his eyes shining with unshed tears, as the mother ship approached what had been Komplex, and the brightly coloured laser assault on the computer's outer shell came into view. "We have no leader! What are we going to _do_? And Toadborg is in there!"

"Toadborg is indestructible," Frix pointed out calmly. He and Frax had returned to the mother ship, along with what was left of their fleet, some minutes ago.

"Exactly!" exclaimed the Air Marshal. "He'll kill us! What will we do without Komplex? He's all we've ever known!"

"Well," mused Frax, "we could try returning to the peaceful ways the toads lived by before Komplex was created, and make peace with the rest of the Aniverse, and never let a machine rule us again."

"Well who's going to authorise _that_?" squeaked the Air Marshal.

"You?" suggested Frax.

"Me?" The Air Marshal was silent for a few moments, and then resumed his rant. "I can't believe we let those mangy mammals beat us! All they had was one lousy frigate! Well, two… and that fox's ship…"

"Actually," Frax said quietly to Frix, "I'm not sorry it's over. We've survived the Toad Wars – now we can go home and start making some grandchildren to tell our stories to!"

"Home?" Frix looked dubious. "Our home world is a giant factory."

"Yes, well, I guess we'll have to do something about that."

"We _are_ pretty lost, you know, without Komplex…"

"We'll manage," Frax said confidently. "Obviously someone's gonna have to start organising us. We can send everyone home, and offer an olive branch to Genus…"

"Us?" Frix looked surprised, but also rather intrigued.

"Well, somebody's gotta do it," reasoned Frax. "And most of the toads above us will probably be reacting something like _that_," and he gestured towards the sobbing Air Marshal. "I mean, _he_ can't drag the toads back onto their feet, can he?"

"I guess not," Frix had to agree. "What about Toadborg?"

"We'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it. I guess the only one who knew how to take _him_ apart was Komplex, and he's…" – they both looked out at the fading laser show – "well, scrap metal."

x x x

"I can't believe it!" Willy was gaping like a goldfish at the Memory Stone clasped in his hand. "Komplex is actually gone?"

"Yes," Jenny replied calmly. "Doubtless there will still be a few problems – pockets of resistance on the toads' part and such – but we'll talk more about that when we get you back."

Willy sighed. "I just hope you _can _get me back."

"So do I," said Jenny. She had been tempted to say, "Of course we can," but she wasn't that certain of this herself and she didn't want to give him false hope. "And so does the United Animals' Coalition – they've put a medal aside for you. Actually, I'd better get going – we're all being presented with some kind of award for outstanding service to the Aniverse, or something."

"Sound a bit more enthusiastic, Jenny," Willy said brightly. "You deserve it."

"Well, I'm just sorry _you_ can't be there – your part in this was so important, Willy. We couldn't have done it without you."

"Yeah, well…"

"Anyway, as soon as we're all wearing our shiny new medals, the search for Bruce is on. We'll find him, he'll fix the photon accelerator, and you'll be back with us in no time… we hope."

"If you're so sure you'll find Bruce," said Willy, "you won't need me as your engineer anymore."

"No," said Jenny, "but we'll always need you as our friend."

Willy smiled dryly. "That was corny, Jen."

They said their goodbyes, and then Willy stuffed the stone back into his jeans pocket, still not quite able to believe what he had just been told. Then suddenly a voice from another part of the room interrupted his thoughts: "I am destroyed?"

"Yes," Willy said, throwing a smug smile towards the toad-like face on his computer screen.

"Curses! My empire is destroyed! And it was so much superior to your world…"

"Well you can't have this one either. You're a has-been, Komplex."

"Then why not destroy me? Whatever your accursed mammal friends did to my original, deleting me from your hard drive will surely be much easier."

"Oh, well…" Willy looked suddenly rather sheepish. "I think it might be all right to keep you for study purposes until I learn to create artificial intelligence to a standard as good as yours. No one in this world can, you know."

"Foolish scientist," Komplex admonished. "You won't destroy me until you have another to take my place. Believe it, Willy DuWitt: one day, you and every other human on this primitive planet will be on your knees before a machine."

x x x

Lanelle was bored almost to tears by the presentation ceremony. She really wasn't interested in Bucky, Jenny and Dogstar having medals pinned to their chests on a podium. She couldn't help smiling when it came to Deadeye's turn, though, and after the ceremony she sought him out to offer her personal congratulations.

"How does it feel to earn it instead o' stealing it?" she asked.

"Good," Deadeye replied simply.

"Flipper'd be proud o' ye."

"Not of you, though. He wouldn't'a' hesitated in giving that order."

"You wouldn't have done it if any of _your_ friends were inside."

"Aye, lass – I can't argue with that." He suddenly changed the subject. "What'll ye do now? Don't go back to piracy, Lanelle – I'd hate to see you hang."

"I won't," said Lanelle. "I've thought about this a lot, actually. I thought I'd go home to Kenopus Three."

Deadeye raised his eyebrows. "Will Redjack be going with ye?"

"I don't know. I'll ask him."

"Aye, and he'd follow you anywhere. Then you'll settle down into some regular honest work, get yourselves a nice home, have some young'uns… I'll come and see ye all after we've found Bruce and retrieved Willy."

"Is that what happens next for you?" asked Lanelle.

"Aye," Deadeye said simply.

"And then…?"

"I can't think that far ahead, lassie. We don't even know yet whether we're still at war with the toads."

"There'll always be problems, you know," said Lanelle. "Komplex may be gone, but it ain't a perfect Aniverse, Deadeye. People will still need help."

"But do they need _my_ help?" queried Deadeye. "I know Bucky and Jenny will keep fighting the good fight for as long as they're needed, and Bruce and Bruiser too, perhaps. I _should_ stick with these guys."

"You don't have to. You could…"

"What?"

"You could come with me."

Without meaning to, Deadeye let out a dry laugh. "Ye be a fickle lass, Lanelle."

Lanelle frowned. "It was always you, Tom," she said. "_You_ walked out of _my_ life, remember."

Deadeye nodded. "Aye, lass, I remember. But I don't know how long it'll take us to find Bruce, and I know you'll stick with Redjack in the meantime."

"I won't," said Lanelle, "if you promise me you'll come back."

Deadeye shook his head. "I can't make no promises, lass. First I'm after getting back me shipmates. And after that… I just don't know."

THE END


End file.
